Good-night

Good-night, sensational type of broadside ballad, popular in England from the 16th through the 19th century, purporting to be the farewell statement of a criminal made shortly before his execution. Good-nights are usually repentant in tone, containing a sketchy account of how the criminal first went astray, a detailed account of his grisly crime, his sentence by the judge, the grief of his aged parents, and a warning to others not to follow his example. An exception is “Sam Hall,” in which the remorseless criminal boasts, “I hate you one and all,” to the bitter end. Enterprising hack writers and broadside publishers often had the good-night printed in advance of the execution, ready for sale on the street (or at the scaffold if the execution were public), at the moment that it was accomplished. Many good-nights, originating in broadsides, have been incorporated into the folk tradition.

...The murders of “Jim Fisk,” Johnny of “Frankie and Johnny,” and many other ballad victims are prompted by sexual jealousy. One particular variety of crime ballad, the “last goodnight”, represents itself falsely to be the contrite speech of a criminal as he mounts the scaffold to be executed. A version of “Mary Hamilton” takes this form, which was...